Element: scrollWidth property
Baseline
Widely available
This feature is well established and works across many devices and browser versions. It’s been available across browsers since July 2015.
The scrollWidth read-only property of the Element interface is a measurement of the width of an element's content, including content not visible on the screen due to overflow.
The scrollWidth value is equal to the minimum width the element would require in order to fit all the content in the viewport without using a horizontal scrollbar. The width is measured in the same way as clientWidth: it includes the element's padding, but not its border, margin or vertical scrollbar (if present). It can also include the width of pseudo-elements such as ::before or ::after. If the element's content can fit without a need for horizontal scrollbar, its scrollWidth is equal to clientWidth.
Value
An integer.
Examples
Detecting overflowing content
In this example, we use the scrollWidth property to check if the content of an element is overflowing its boundaries. We have two div elements, the first with a width of 100px, and the second without a fixed width. Their content is exactly the same, and we display a message about whether each one is overflowing its container.
HTML
<div id="div1">FooBar-FooBar-FooBar-FooBar</div>
<button id="button1">Check for overflow</button>
<pre id="log1"></pre>
<div id="div2">FooBar-FooBar-FooBar-FooBar</div>
<button id="button2">Check for overflow</button>
<pre id="log2"></pre>
CSS
div {
padding: 0.15em;
overflow: hidden;
white-space: nowrap;
text-overflow: ellipsis;
}
button {
margin: 0.15em 0 0.5em 0;
}
pre {
margin: 0.5em 0;
}
#div1 {
width: 100px;
}
#log1 {
margin-bottom: 2em;
}
JavaScript
const button1 = document.getElementById("button1");
const button2 = document.getElementById("button2");
const div1 = document.getElementById("div1");
const div2 = document.getElementById("div2");
const log1 = document.getElementById("log1");
const log2 = document.getElementById("log2");
// Check if the scrollWidth is bigger than the clientWidth or not
function isOverflowing(element) {
return element.scrollWidth > element.clientWidth;
}
function checkOverflow(element, log) {
if (isOverflowing(element)) {
log.innerText = `Content is overflowing, scrollWidth is ${element.scrollWidth}px`;
} else {
log.innerText = `No overflows, scrollWidth is ${element.scrollWidth}px`;
}
}
button1.addEventListener("click", () => {
checkOverflow(div1, log1);
});
button2.addEventListener("click", () => {
checkOverflow(div2, log2);
});
Result
Click the buttons to check if the content is overflowing the containers.
Specifications
| Specification |
|---|
| CSSOM View Module # dom-element-scrollwidth |
Browser compatibility
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scrollWidth
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Legend
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- Full support
- Full support